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Newcastle University ePrints Andersen E. Birgitta of Sweden in Northern Germany: Translation, Transmission and Reception. In: Andersen, E.A., Lähnemann, H., Simon, A, ed. A Companion to Mysticism and Devotion in Northern Germany in the Late Middle Ages. Leiden: Brill, 2013, pp.205-230. Copyright: This is the author’s post-refereed, pre-print version of a chapter published in its final definitive form by Brill, 2013 and available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2011.529703 Always use the definitive version when citing. Further information on publisher website: http://www.brill.com/ Date deposited: 25th March 2014 Version of chapter: Author pre-print This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License ePrints – Newcastle University ePrints http://eprint.ncl.ac.uk Pre-print version from: Companion to Mysticism and Devotion in Northern Germany in the Late Middle Ages, ed. by Elizabeth Andersen, Henrike Lähnemann and Anne Simon (Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition 44), Leiden 2013, pp. 215–230. ISBN 9789004257931 With thanks to Brill for their permission to publish the pre-print version online Birgitta of Sweden: Translation, Transmission and Reception in Northern Germany Elizabeth Andersen Birgitta of Sweden (1303-73), the most important saint of Northern Europe, exercised a profound influence on the spirituality of the late Middle Ages through the Revelationes Sanctae Birgittae which record her prophetic visions.1 She stands first in a line of late-medieval female prophets, including her near contemporary Catherine of Siena and Joan of Arc. Within the context of this volume Birgitta is a key figure in the transmission of mystical thought. The translation and adap- tation of the voluminous Revelationes in Northern Germany highlight the central importance of Lübeck as a hub for the dissemination of texts through the new art of printing and reveal the sig- nificance of the Hanseatic League (Hanse) as a network for cultural exchange. This chapter has as its focus two incunables from the Lübeck printing houses, which together epitomize the transformation from the visionary to the devotional, that process which is so central to many of the contributions in this volume: the Revelationes Sanctæ Birgittæ, printed by Barthol- omäus Ghotan in 1492, and the Low German Sunte Birgitten Openbaringe, printed by the Mohnkopf Press in 1496. Although the interval of time between the printing of these texts is only four years, they represent very different stages in the cult of Birgitta of Sweden. The Revelationes is the work of Birgitta’s confessors who translated the revelations she wrote and dictated into Latin. The shaping of these revelations by Alfonso of Jaén, as the chief editor, was done with the express purpose of making the case for the canonization of Birgitta, which succeeded in 1391. The Openbaringe is a reworking of the Revelationes a century later when Birgitta was a well-established saint and her daughter Katarina recently canonized (1484). This hagiographical status is reflected in the abridgement and adaptation done for the print. The manner in which the Mohnkopf adap- tor translated, edited and reshaped the Revelationes altered the character of the work decisively, ac- commodating it to the tastes and sentiments of a late fifteenth-century readership. This is immedi- ately evident in the proportions of the Revelationes and the Openbaringe which are strikingly differ- ent: where the Revelationes was large folio in format and consisted of 422 leaves, double column, with 46 lines to the page, the Openbaringe was quarto in format and had 204 leaves, with 29 lines to the page. In what follows, the focus will be on the principles which informed the Mohnkopf adaptor’s re- working and reshaping of the Revelationes and for whom this work was intended. One of the structural principles in the recasting and supplementing of the material was the development of a saint’s life. The following thumbnail sketch of the life of Birgitta highlights those elements which resonated with the dominant mood of devotion in the late fifteenth century. In the Revelationes Birgitta emerges as a charismatic and political visionary whose contemplative mysticism was interwoven with social engagement and a commitment to the salvation of the world. This was by no means clear from the outset; it is fitting that she (together with Dorothea of Montau, →Suerbaum) was made the patron saint of widows since it is only after the death of her husband Ulf Gudmarsson in c. 1345 and after she had four sons and four daughters that she moves into the limelight. Before Birgitta received her “calling vision” in which she was directed to be- 1 Morris, St Birgitta of Sweden (1999); Sahlin, Birgitta of Sweden and the Voice of Prophecy (2001). BCCT42 chapter 9: Andersen 2 Birgitta of Sweden come the sponsa et canale, the bride of and channel for Christ, only a few biographical facts are recorded; it can be inferred that she came from a socially privileged and well-connected family since her mother’s family was related to the royal Folkung dynasty. The starting point for both her fame and her regular visions is the year 1349 when she was directed by Christ to go to Rome. Ac- companied by three of her children, Karl, Birger and Katarina, she spent the rest of her life in Rome, making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land while she was there. She emerges as a new type of saint and a controversial figure who, on the authority of the revelations she received, sought to reform the dissolute court of Stockholm, castigated knights, priests and bishops for their actions, sought to persuade three popes, Clement VI, Urban V and Gregory XI, to restore the papacy to Rome from Avignon and gave advice concerning a peaceful solution to the Hundred Years War between England and France. Work on the application for Birgitta to be considered for canonization began in the year following her death in 1373. The canonization process, begun in 1379 under Pope Urban VI, was completed with spectacular speed in twelve years in 1391 under Pope Boniface IX, just 18 years after Birgitta’s death. The swiftness of the process was in no small part due to the politics of the contemporary papacy.2 From the Revelationes Sanctae Birgittae to the Sunte Birgitten Openbaringe The transformation of a personal religious vocation to a model of European relevance was initiated and supported in Sweden by three confessors: Master Mathias Ovidi, canon of Linköping, Prior Petrus Olavi of the Cistercian Abbey of Alvastra and Master Petrus Olavi of Skänninge who trans- lated Birgitta’s revelations from Swedish into Latin. Her fourth confessor, Alfonso Pecha, a former bishop of Jaén, whom Birgitta met in Rome in 1367, then edited and shaped the revelations. 3 The Birgittine corpus follows symbolic structures with twelve books in total, of which seven form the ‘heavenly book’ (Liber caelestis) together with book VIII, the Liber caelestis imperatoris ad reges; the four supplementary books each address a specific audience: the Regula Salvatoris, Sermo angelicus, Quattuor orationes and Revelationes extravagantes. Alfonso ordered some seven hundred revelations into the eight books of the Revelationes, providing the chapters with titles. Signific a nt l y, h e did not compile the Revelationes in chronological order. Rather, in the preparation of the revelations to support Birgitta’s canonization it was important to foreground the divine inspiration and her pro- phetic role. Some books still have a time frame as reference, such as Book III which draws on the time she spent in Rome (1349-73). Others have a thematic focus: in Book IV the scope of the vi- sions extends to Europe with a number targeted at high-ranking clergy and secular political lead- ers. All this culminates in the symbolically numbered Book VII which details the revelations Bir- gitta received during her stay in the Holy Land (1371-72). These revelations are those with the most enduring visual legacy since they influenced the way in which events from the life of Jesus were depicted, most notably the Birth and Crucifixion.4 They alone are in more or less chronologi- cal order since they emulate the formula of the Gospels – we have here a fifth account of the life of Jesus, retold in visions. Birgitta’s visions range from private devotions to political and public messages; she meditates on the human condition, domestic affairs in Sweden and ecclesiastical matters in Rome; she expresses 2 Cf. Sahlin, Voice of Prophecy, 159–168. 3 The Revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden. Vol. 1, Liber Caelestis, Books I–III, transl. Searby (2006) 11-15. 4 Cf. Aili / Svanberg, Imagines Sanctae Birgittae: the earliest illuminated manuscripts and panel paintings related to the revelations of St Birgitta of Sweden (2003), Vol. 1, 93–101; Vol. 2, 107–123. Cornell, The Iconography of the Nativity of Christ (1924), 1–45; Andersson, Birgitta och dat heliga landet (1973), 107– 113. BCCT42 chapter 9: Andersen 3 Birgitta of Sweden devotion to the Virgin Mary and praise of the Incarnation. The editorial work in the production of the Revelationes proved to be highly successful, as the breadth of the canvas ensured that the work had appeal for different interest groups, providing insight into matters that ranged from politics to the interpretation of biblical scenes. This concept clearly worked; after the establishment of the Birgittine Order in the 1380s, the canonization of Birgitta in 1391 and the spread of the Birgittine 5 cult throughout Europe, interest in the Revelationes grew rapidly. The Latin text circulated all over Germany. The translation of extracts from the Revelationes into German dates back to the late fourteenth century, although the majority are from the fifteenth century.